Rutgers baseball will host 2 games at Bainton Field before series at UConn this week
The Rutgers baseball team is set for a jam-packed week of ball games. The Scarlet Knights (10-8, 0-0) are set to kick off their week at home before traveling to Connecticut for a series against UConn.
After a rocky start to its season, Rutgers has bounced back in the last couple of weeks, winning 7 of its last 8 games.
The Knights are coming off a big week of wins against Kennesaw State and Mercer. Rutgers blew the Bears (14-7, 0-0) out of the water in the teams’ series opener last weekend, rallying 23 runs in nine innings.
The Knights will return to Bainton Field on Livingston campus for the first time since the beginning of the month. They will host New Jersey rival Rider today.
The Broncs (13-6, 0-0) are having a solid season, as they have only lost one series so far. Rider is coming off of a winning series against Villanova, where it swept a doubleheader over the Wildcats (2-16, 0-0). The Broncs have been hitting solidly as a team, with a combined batting average of .252.
Rider’s best hitter so far this season has been Brian Skettini, who has posted a .323 batting average along with a .839 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). Another Broncs player to look out for is Jack Winsett, who leads Rider with 17 runs batted in (RBI) along with four extra-base hits.
Rutgers will welcome another guest tomorrow when it matches up with Lafayette. The Leopards (3-16, 0-0) have had a rather rocky season, only securing three wins thus far. They have struggled to collect enough runs to compete with their opponents and are coming to Piscataway on an 8-game losing streak.
While Lafayette has disappointed, one of its players has been putting up impressive numbers. Pete Ciuffreda leads his team with 8 home runs along with 15 RBI and a high 1.002 OPS.
After a two-game homestand, the Knights will make their way to Storrs, Connecticut, for a weekend series with the Huskies (12-5, 0-0). UConn won two games in a row against San Diego State and will face UMass before hosting Rutgers on Friday.
The Huskies are being led by strong offense from several of their players. As of yesterday, Dominic Freeberger is leading the team with a .379 batting average, a team-high of 25 hits and is tied for first on the team with 18 RBI. UConn has eight players hitting for a batting average of at least .273 and seven players with double-digit RBI numbers on the season.
The Knights certainly have their work cut out for them this week. With such a busy schedule, Rutgers will have to be looking for consistency and depth this week. Look out for a week full of exciting matchups for this ball club.
If the Knights are to find more success, they should channel the exact same energy they had in their series last weekend against the Bears. In that three-game series, Rutgers scored 35 runs and racked up 44 hits.
Both of the Knights' home games today against the Broncs and tomorrow against Lafayette will start at 3 p.m. and will be broadcasted on Big Ten Network+ as well as 88.7 WRSU-FM. Rutgers' series against the Huskies will have live stats provided by StatBroadcast, with its Friday game starting at 3 p.m. and its Saturday and Sunday games starting at 1 p.m.
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